Cinderella license

Generally speaking, teenagers are more likely to engage in behavior that is dangerous, elevating the chances that they will be in a serious or fatal accident. Cinderella licence laws seek to alleviate this risk by legislating behavior. Granted, it might seem oppressive at first, like The Man is trying to get you and your social life down if you're under 21, but the rationale behind the laws has been proven time after time by numerous studies.

The central three components to "graduated licensing", as the laws are usually titled, are restrictions in the times a young driver may operate a car, the number of passengers the young driver may carry, and the use of seatbelts (which are mandatory in all 50 United States anyways). Other states often introduce other clauses (Colorado bans all cell phone usage under 21, while Michigan increased the age at which you may receive a permit by a half year), but those three clauses are central to practically all graduated licenses.

The number of passengers is also strongly linked to likelihood of a teenaged driver becoming a participant in an accident. A recent study indicated that a teenaged driver with only one passenger doubles their chances of being in a fatal accident compared to no passengers. For additional passengers, the risk was five times higher.5 Williams, Preusser and others noted that in police reports of fatal crashes in which two or more teenagers were in the vehicle, there is often evidence of distraction, physical
interference or inducements to risk taking.6 The same study noted a survey that reported that teenagers reported that in all the dangerous situations they had experienced in the last six months, 85% had more than one passenger in the car with them during the incident.7